The downtown skyline of Calgary, Alta., on March 19, 2022.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Rollin Stanley is the former chief planner of Calgary, where he also led three city departments. He previously led planning efforts in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, worked as the head city planner for the mayor of St. Louis and spent 21 years in Toronto’s planning department.
About 10 years ago, I was approached by the director of a non-profit organization looking to construct an 80-unit affordable housing and supportive-services centre in Calgary for people with mental illness.
We identified a city-owned lot on MacLeod Trail near 50th Avenue SW. The site had been vacant for decades, except for a low, stone block wall; a rusting railing; and concrete steps leading nowhere. That parcel had everything the non-profit needed: land that could easily be made available at market or below-market cost, access to buses and the CTrain, potential jobs in the industrial area across the street, and nearby shopping and medical services.
Despite what seemed to be a perfect match of need and location, the project did not move forward. After two years of trying, the city’s property department did not release the site for sale owing to departmental turf differences. Years later, the land still sits empty. It is a visual and economic blight on a prominent traffic corridor.
The experience highlighted the need to think about how the city makes surplus lands available to meet the pressing housing needs of a growing city. In recent years, the federal government has devoted millions to building affordable housing. With the coming federal budget, expectations are high for plentiful housing funds. And in Calgary, there are many non-profits that are poised to receive them, particularly if they have already secured land for sites.
Alberta housing affordability could be tested
That’s why the time is ripe for the city to prepare a new list of city-owned properties that will be offered to the non-profit community. With overwhelming need for affordable housing to support a strong work force, the city council needs to be aggressive. The more sites, the better.
In most instances, the problem for non-profits is getting access to land. First, finding sites suitable for affordable housing. Second, being able to afford the land. Third, contending with opposition among local residents to lower-income housing, often expressed as an objection to the form of the building not being compatible with the neighbourhood.
For cities, parting with land for housing at cost or below-market rates to non-profits is often a step too far. City officials may be looking to earn more either from selling the land for a higher price, or from tax revenue from a commercial or industrial use. Or they may be looking years down the road at using a property for another civic purpose.
One smart option to unlock public land would be for the city to tap into a wealth of large sites originally dedicated by developers to construct schools or open space for then-growing, inner-city neighbourhoods.
Decades of population decline in these communities means these parcels are no longer needed for new schools. Making these sites available for mixed-income housing construction is long overdue. It will not be easy. Often, these lands are perceived as neighbourhood-open spaces, with local residents unaware that there was supposed to be a school there.
The City of Edmonton provides a model. In 2006, 20 of the city’s schools were declared surplus, with another 20 added three years later. That decision was made possible by Bill 41, which the province enacted in 2008. Applicable to both Edmonton and Calgary, the legislation allows either city to repurpose land declared surplus by a school board for fire halls, police stations, libraries, daycares and affordable housing. Prior to the amendment, a surplus site could only be used for parks, schools or recreation.
The first 20 sites were designated under Edmonton’s First Place program and used to build market-rate townhomes for income-eligible, first-time buyers, where the land cost of the mortgage is deferred for five years. However, while townhomes provide a more affordable housing option, the program allows families to qualify with an income level of up to almost $120,000. It offers only ownership units – no rental apartments – which certainly excludes a large underserved population.
In 2014, I asked staff to create development options for several of Calgary’s school sites already declared surplus. The options mixed housing styles, tenure and household incomes, and were intended to start a discussion while aiming to be even more inclusive than the program in Edmonton.
Unfortunately, the effort stalled because of concern over resident pushback about any development on these sites. At the time, residents in the Varsity neighbourhood in city’s northwest were suing the Calgary Board of Education over plans to build a school for children with special needs on a site declared surplus land. Residents viewed the land as green space and claimed their property values would be impacted.
Calgary has dozens of surplus and potentially surplus school sites on land connected to municipal services such as water and sewer. Packaged correctly, these parcels could make up one of the largest mixed-income housing initiatives in the country, just as federal funds become available. In a city where secondary suites were only just permitted – over intense local opposition and decades behind most cities – there will be residents very unhappy about any new development.
Calgary needs to act quickly. Only a few school sites have been declared surplus, a process that can take a year or more, as does provincial legislation to expand permitted uses on the sites. The potential to unlock land for more than 1,000 units of new inner-city housing units would go a long way toward meeting Calgary’s goal of balancing inner-city and suburban growth.
With a new mayor and council, it is time to open up these serviced properties, which will create jobs, tax revenue, housing opportunity and inclusive neighbourhoods.
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